UMAMI
-"Take the guesswork out of meal planning with our recipe app!"
Product:
Recipe recommendation app
Strategies:
User Research, Prototyping, UX/UI Design
Timeline:
3 weeks
Tools Used:
Figma, Figjam & Trello
Overview
The objective of this project consisted of collaboration and focusing on designing a real life need for the user. Our project aims to help people who are struggling with food waste and money spending. we know that these are two big issues that many people encounter. Our app allows users to take a picture of their pantry or fridge and then recommends recipes based on what they already have at home. The app will also alert the user with an error for a missing ingredient from any recipe the user enjoys and recommend them an alternative for what they may have at home.
My Role
This was a group project that started with 5 members ending in 4 members.
I participated in User research, Sketching & Wireframing, and Interactive design.
The Problem
Insufficient time and unsustainable management of food basics makes it difficult for people to create a meal costing many individuals to waste food and eat out.
The Solution
Creating an app (Umami) makes it easier and simpler to create meals everyday! The recipe recommendation app allows users to take a photo or manually enter their food items in their fridge or pantry and then generate meals with recipes, time frames and alternate food items that could be replaced.
The User
Due to all the user interviews and survey, we were able to create Carlos for our user persona. Carlos wants to save money on spending for takeout and instead learn to meal prep to save on the amount of food waste at home and become healthier.
The Process
After all the observations we had made from the interviews, we were able to determine how often people spend on groceries and how likely they cook all their groceries throughout the week. we also were able to gather information upon the triggers to food waste.
From this we were able to brainstorm and conceptualize our users goals and motivations. We created a User Scenario to better understand our user and how they may navigate through our app on an emotional journey.
User Scenario
Along with the User Scenario we created a storyboard in order to better illustrate how the user experience will occur. The storyboard also shows Carlos feelings before and after Umami is introduced which is how the scenario phases are introduced.
Feature Prioritization Matrix
After the interviews we were able to discuss and implement as a group what we considered the best ideas to add onto our mobile app. We did this by dot voting upon the four most best features.
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An alert system for almost expired foods
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Substitue ingredient suggestions
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Take a photo inside pantry/fridge
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Make creative meal preps
Lo-fi Wireframes
When creating the user flow we begin to sketch out wireframes upon how we imagined some of the user interface elements to look. we also included features based upon the needs of the user. This helped us shape ideas quickly into our digital wireframes.
Mid-fidelity Wireframes
When creating our sketches we began to design our layouts and decide how our final product should show. We would test our product various times to see if thier were errors we saw and also test again with users to try to understand their interactions and behaviors. Based upon their feedback we were able to update our wireframes and design an app that fits the users end goals.
Final Results
What's Next?
Some of the next steps I would love to complete on the app is to add measurements and time frames to each recipe so that the user is able to tell how long it may take for them to prepare their meal.
I would also like to add a feature in order for users to go back into their pantry on the app and add expiration dates or change expiration dates, this way users are able to go back into their pantry and change what may be soon to expire, allowing the user to know when or what to cook next.
